Tripura welcomes Rail Budget 2016, NE to be benefited

Agartala, Feb. 25 (ANI): People in Tripura expressed satisfaction with the railway budget proposals for fiscal 2016-17 presented in the Lok Sabha by Indian Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu today and said that it will help in completion of the ongoing projects in the region.

The Union Railway Budget 2016-17 focused on capacity creation in the rail sector, with an increased outlay of about Rs. 1.21 lakh crore, and on completion of the ongoing projects, rather than announcing new ones.

People expressed that they are happy with the Rail Budget as there has been no hike in the passenger fare and increase in quota for women and senior citizens.

Moreover, the Railways Minister has promised completion of ongoing projects and which shall benefit the Northeastern region as there many ongoing railway projects and those shall have no dearth of fund.

Sitangshu Ranjan Dey a local said, “Our Rail Minister has placed a Rail Budget of Rs 1.21 lakh crores, this may not be a very big figure but he gave importance to completion of the ongoing projects. That is a big gift for the people of the Northeastern. Connecting all the state capitals by rail in the region and the Agartala-Akhaura rail connection with Bangladesh are ongoing projects. Beside this, Agartala is going to be connected by broad-gauge and in then up to Sabroom from where it will be connected with Chittagong to help connectivity for the Northeast via Tripura.”

“This budget is good, good in the sense that there has not been any rise in the fare and also lot of facilities has been given to women and especially senior citizens,” said Jayanta Bhattacharya, another local.

“I think 80 percent of the works have already been completed and so there won’t be any problem in getting funds for completion of those projects. It’s good news for us and another thing is that to connect the entire Northeastern railways with Bangladesh railways one project is going on that is called Agartala-Akhaura railway project. The 15 Km railway project is on and there also will be no dearth of funds so it is also good news,” he added.

The Minister of Railways Prabhu has said that better connectivity to the North Eastern States is of utmost priority for the Indian Railways.

Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today he said, Indian Railways have opened the long-awaited Broad Gauge Lumding-Silchar section in Assam, thus connecting Barak Valley with rest of the country. It also brought Agartala, the capital of Tripura on to the Broad Gauge network.

He said, the States of Mizoram and Manipur are also set to come on the Broad Gauge map of the country soon with commissioning of the Kathakal-Bhairabi and Arunachal-Jiribam Gauge Conversion projects. (ANI)